Gray Line of Seattle

We took the Mt. Rainier trip yesterday with Grey Line using a Groupon. What a waste of our time.
The tour guide/​driver was just awful. I mean, ruin-​the-​entire-​trip awful. For 6 hours, she simply did not shut up. I don’t mean 6 hours of stories and interesting information — she just rambled on and on and on — verbal diarrhea — through amplified speakers that prevented me and my friend from enjoying a conversation and a view of whatever scenery there was from the bus.
We’re talking about commentary in the style of, «And here’s a gas station on our right, and as you see, this freeway exit goes to Isaaquah which is a place south of here and it’s about 15 miles away, and I haven’t been there for a while but my brother Bill grew up there and he thought it was okay, but I haven’t seen Bill in a long time so maybe that’s not true anymore.»
(And if I may point out, I don’t know if much of what she said was even accurate. Her commentary included stuff like Bill Gates’ home being in Bellevue when it’s actually in Medina, and Microsoft being formed in 1985 [which it wasn’t] in the Puget Sound area [which it also wasn’t].)
Although they warned us that the gondola might not be operating today — they never explicitly said that — without the Gondola in operation — there was literally no view whatsoever of Mt. Rainier (or anything remotely interesting). In other words, we were paying $ 60 to waste on a 8 hour bus trip to visit a bad, overpriced restaurant with one food menu item and a hat store that sells mass produced huckleberry ice cream… which I buy for half the price in Idaho anyway.
The bus seat was also defective, and kept reclining into the person behind me.
I’m giving two stars because, frankly, everyone I talked with from the company was really nice.

Great tours and so convenient! We took the Mt. Rainier day trip and it was amazing. Not only did we not have to worry about navigating around the park by ourselves, we got to ride in a clean & comfortable coach bus with a great driver! I definitely recommend if you’re looking to do a day trip while in Seattle — I know I’ll definitely be perusing their other trip offerings on any return visits to the West Coast!

I’m in Seattle on business and stayed over the weekend, so I decided I’d go check out the big snow capped mountain looming outside of Seattle. :-) I decided to stop by the Sheraton hotel where the tour bus departs to buy my ticket since I was already downtown. The one negative here is that they ONLY accept plastic. I’d planned to pay with cash since I knew I was near the limit on my credit card, but I couldn’t. Lucky I still had enough available credit on my card to cover the cost of the ticket.
My client has me staying at a hotel in Bellevue, so I had to drive into the city for the tour. (Lucky I did this on a Sunday when there was no traffic going into the city at 7:00 am. If you’re staying anywhere outside of the downtown area and have to drive into the city for the tour, I HIGHLY recommend you take the tour on the weekend and avoid rush-​hour traffic during the week.) I parked in the convention center parking garage and walked around the block to get on the bus. (The cost of parking actually ended up being almost half what I’d expected to pay.)
The Gray Lines driver, Skip, was very nice and even drove around to a different pickup location as one of the tour participants walks with a cane and would have had trouble with all the stairs at the corner entrance of the hotel. Skip was very knowledgable about the area and started telling us interesting facts about Seattle and the surrounding area as soon as we pulled away from the hotel. The drive to Mt. Rainier was pleasant and Skip told us lots of interesting stories and tidbits and slowed down or pulled over so we could take pictures whenever we came upon something interesting. (I actually ended up taking so many pictures I exhausted the freshly charged battery in my camera before the tour was even over.) Mother Nature was kind to us and the views were amazing! The bus got a little warm after a while, but luckily we stopped and got off to take pictures often enough that it wasn’t too bad.
I definitely think it was a great way to spend a Sunday!

Boyfriend and I booked directly from gray line tours website, it was 89 bucks each. Pricey, yes, but Frank Shepard, our awesome tour guide definitely made it worth our while! I was laughing the entire day! That dude is hilarious! At one point he said «I might go get a 3 dollar burger and junk it up». The tour itself needs a little help, when booked, no email confirmation was sent and the itinerary printed from the site said the bus was to be outside the grand Hyatt at 7:02 a. m but right under that said 8 am… so which was it? Well it was 7:02 am and if you’re staying at the Grand Hyatt then the bus picks you up on the side not the main entrance… seems like good info to provide no? The bus is relatively comfortable, there were 17 people in our tour, mostly older adults. The bus stops along the way for bathroom breaks, we stopped at a mc donalds, which is gross to me, but half the bus came back with something.
Entering Mt Rainier park is amazing, we saw an eagle, a beautiful lake, mt rainier was clear as can be that day, 2 waterfalls, tons of birds and the snow was 15 ft high and just beautiful! They stopped at Paradise inn to eat lunch and it was actually pretty yummy, get the clam chowder, even if you think you don’t like clam chowder! We saw the tree of life, a bunch of huge red cedars and then made our way to a small time bakery out in the middle of nowhere where everyone chilled and ate some pastries and caffeined out on coffee. We arrived back at the hotel exactly as stated, 530… Would also like to add we saw a huge glacier, usually the bus slows and drives along the bridge ask to get out and look, it was the best part of the trip i feel. I honestly don’t think this tour would be amazing if it werent for Frank Shepard so he better stick around there, ask for him hes seriously awesome!

This is a review of the Mount Rainier tour I was supposed to go on.
On the day of the tour, I was never picked up by the driver at my hotel despite my calling their customer service number multiple times to ask for an eta. I was told that due to a miscommunication with the driver, they missed my stop but that I would get to go on the same tour the next day.
The next day, I’m still waiting at the same hotel at the same pickup time and somehow, the driver again does not come by. This is after the CSR from yesterday promised she would make sure I get on the tour today. After a couple of calls and an hour after the pickup time, I was told that the driver had already left the city and I would once again miss the tour.
Considering one of the main reasons I went to Seattle was to visit Mount Rainier, I am extremely disappointed at the quality of service by this company.
I highly recommend that you spend a couple extra bucks and go with another tour company if you actually want to visit Mount Rainier and not wait at your hotel for 2 hours for a bus that doesn’t come.
At this point, I can only hope that I get my money refunded as promised so I don’t have to waste more time disputing this charge with my CC company.
Side note — As others have pointed out, if you want to get to downtown Seattle, take the light rail. It costs $ 2.5 for a one way ticket and only takes about 30ish minutes. Look for the abundance of signs for it in the airport.

need to get to the airport? take the light rail (or the metro)
this company is whack.

$ 11 — Fast pickup & great driver. Wayne was awesome & gave a good tour and took some extra time to drop us off at a place near a better club that wasn’t near our hotel.

For review on a Thursday in June 2009:
— 1 way from airport is $ 11; if you know you’re to do round trip, get the $ 18 round trip ticket at SEATAC.
— It’s a far walk to door 00 from United Airlines gates (about 10 minutes), but it’s a good price.
— Buses are very timely as they mention they have to stick to the schedule.
— It was a 25 minute ride from SEATAC to downtown hotel with a bit of traffic (please note this was at 3p on a Thursday, but you know traffic is tricky!).
— Some shuttles cost $ 27+, so what a great deal during recession time!

The air porter gets the job done, but the line is extremely log and the employees seem completely disorganized.

To the airport an d back. It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s cheap.
Drivers do the work.
My friends ar ehappy. I am happy. Life is good when you don’t have to bug your friends.
just go have dinner with them instead. oh yeah, I am on a diet. have water with them instead.

I’ve taken the Gray Line to Sea Tac, atleast 10 times. Every driver I had, was really nice. One fo them, even let me ride to the airport free of charge.

$ 11 bucks to get me to the SEA-​TAC from the W.
Comfortable seats that allowed me to nap.
Stops at virtually every downtown hotel.
Got a great tour of Downtown while on the bus.
Driver missed me and I looked like a fool running after the bus. She came back around.
Was solicited by taxi cabs saying «$ 20 bucks, I’ll take you for $ 20bucks.»
Politely looking up, I respond «it’s cool, I am waiting for my Gray Line» and under my breath «where I won’t ride with fools.»
Partly true… but it worked out perfect for me!

I’m reviewing Gray Line of Seattle for two things– once for the airport shuttle and once again for the Mt. Rainier day trip that we took.
First things first, 2 stars for the airport shuttle– it may be convenient for first-​timers to Seattle, but the ride from the airport can take upwards of an hour as the driver circumnavigates downtown Seattle to hit all the major hotels. They’re dropping people off, picking people up, selling tickets and all you want to do is make it to your hotel. Not only that, but the ticketing system at the airport is ridiculously long– there’s only one person to sell tickets for the shuttle and if a bunch of flights come in at the same time, you’re SOL and you have to be prepared to stand in line for about a half hour. That makes a total of an hour and a half spent waiting and traveling from the airport when I could have just taken a taxi and been in my hotel in a half hour. Granted, I would have paid more for the trip, but it would have been a lot less time-​consuming and aggravating.
As for the second part, Gray Line gets 4 stars for a well-​run day-​trip out to Mt. Rainier National Park. There were times when the tour guide/​bus driver would get hopelessly hoke-​y as he told Bigfoot stories, but the beauty of the park can’t be denied. You can save yourself some money by renting a car and doing it yourself, but sometimes, its just easier having someone drive you around to all the well-​known scenic spots so that you can take all the photos you want and then nap on your way back to Seattle.
Between the two trips, Gray Line of Seattle gets an average of 3 stars. Improve on both the customer service at the airport and at the Sheraton (where the day-​trips start from) and they’d be getting a 4.

We landed in Seattle around noon. We decided to take the shuttle because it would be cheaper than a cab. Almost THREE hours later we got to our DOWNTOWN Seattle hotel. It would have been worth the extra $ 10 bucks to take a 20 minute cab ride instead.

I fly a lot.
I’ve used the Gray Line bus a couple of times.
They drop off at all of the major hotels downtown.
I do not live in a major hotel downtown.
I do, however, have an apartment just a few blocks from a major hotel downtown.
For about $ 11, I can avoid loud, obnoxious assholes on the #194, stinky, drunken assholes on the #174, and shady, shifty assholes in taxis.
Bargain! I’d give ‘em five stars for door to door service.

My advice: take the 194 express bus, which runs about every ½ hour between SeaTac & downtown for $ 2, unless you have mega-​luggage, or are arriving after dark. It’s clean, neat, and quick; the bus stops near many of the downtown hotels (check out the Metro Trip Planner online to see how far you’d need to walk). I once made the mistake of buying the Gray Line ticket online beforehand, only to find that I still had to check in at the desk before getting in line for the shuttle (that line had at least an hour wait), and then I could get into yet ANOTHER line for the shuttle, which was at least another hour’s wait, plus ½ hour transit time, of course. I and the couple behind me gave up and split a taxi downtown. DON’T buy your ticket beforehand; check out the line at the Gray Line counter first – and don’t forget to add the line outside waiting for the shuttle to your calculations. If it’s too long, just sashay a few steps to the bus stop (right outside on the street, at the corner of the building, by the artsy boulders). Or see if anyone in line wants to split a taxi…

Great, convienient, and cheapest way to get to and from the airport towards the downtown Seattle area. If you’re a tourist like I was, you’ll appreciate the fact that the Downtown Airporter (the yellow bus) drops passengers off at several major hotels, with connecting trips to others. My hotel was only a block from the Sheraton (one of their major stops) and it was easy and convienient.

The Gray Line (that’s the big yellow bus) is the best and easiest part of any trip I take out of SeaTac.
I can leave my car parked in its downtown garage, and for $ 17 RT ($ 10.25 one way), can jump on the bus to the airport from a number of downtown hotels. The buses arrive/​depart every 30 minutes. You can buy the ticket at the hotel stop or pay the driver directly. Some of the drivers are excellent tour guides and others just drive; either way works, though the interaction is refreshing from time to time. I’ve actually met a few friendly out-​of-​town professionals on the Gray Line.
My only «negative» experience has been with the blonde female driver. She took my money and said she’d get me change later. When we arrived at the airport rather than get me my change so I could check in to my flight, she began retrieving bags from the cargo area for other bus passengers. I didn’t have time to stand around and wait for her, so I let her keep the change. I will not tip this woman to this day.
Check out the Website for departure times and location:

I love the Gray Line shuttle! It’s nice, clean and efficient. You can buy your round trip tickets when you land in Seattle Airport (no more scrambling for a shuttle at the hotel or hoping one shows up!).
I do have to say the ticket booth was kind of hard to find (they need better signs, people!).
Beats taking a cab. I’m not a cab person, btw. Do not riding in the back alone w/​some creepy cabbie…

Laid back attitude, but it’s never crowded.
I consistently am happy with the ride downtown. However, the Customer Service at the Airport desk is literally some of the worst service I’ve received in my life… They’re unconcerned and clearly not motivated.
I consistently use them b/​c of the convinience